This invention relates to a connector particularly suitable for use in a building entrance box and, more particularly, to such a connector having collapsible walls to allow a wave soldering operation without damaging the connector plastic and to thereafter allow a potting operation.
Where telephone wires enter a building, there is usually provided a building entrance box. The incoming wires, which are typically contained within one or more multi-wire cables, enter a splice chamber in the box, where they are connected to wires which go to a protector field, in a connector chamber of the box, providing protection against lightning, high voltage and high current, and then connections are made within the connector chamber to an output wire connector field. At the connector field, connections are made to wires which extend through the building to output jacks at various locations in the building. Accordingly, a connector is provided within the connector chamber.
When such a box is us in an outdoor environment, moisture can enter the box through openings provided for the incoming cables. This moisture can pass from the splice chamber to the connector chamber and can condense on the underside of the connector field, where it can short out terminals. To prevent such problems, in the past the underside of the connector field has been potted. Such potting requires a wall surrounding the region being potted in order to contain the potting material. However, connectors designed for wave soldering of their terminals must have the terminal tails fully exposed. The plastic housing of the connector must be isolated from the tails in order to prevent molten solder from touching and burning the plastic. However, this conflicts with the requirement that there be a wall around the terminal tails for containing the potting material. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a connector which can be used in a wave solder procedure and which allows the terminals to be potted after the wave solder procedure.